TROUBLED EYES AGAIN TURN TO A HORSE.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

ELMONT, N.Y. - The United States grappling with the aftermath of war. The White House under fire. Gas-pump consumers anxious.

Looks like the national stage is set once again for a great racehorse.

It was that way in 1973, when Secretariat provided a diversion from our troubles by completing the first Triple Crown sweep in 25 years, earning the covers of Time and Newsweek in the shadows of Vietnam and Watergate.

And it's that way this week, as Smarty Jones arrives at Belmont Park today to race in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday and try to become the first Triple Crown winner in 26 years.

``It's a time when you want to feel good about something,'' Penny Chenery, owner of Secretariat, said last week on a media conference call in response to a question about similarities in the eras. ``And we can't feel good about our country and our foreign policy now.''

Make what you will of the political shadings of Chenery's statement.

But can anybody on any side of the issues deny the nation's spirits could use a lift? Or that sports have always helped us through tough times? Or that an unbeaten horse might be a reminder that perfection is still attainable?

Saturday's Belmont wouldn't be the first sports event whose broader historical context sharpened its impact.

Some sports moments are overtly political: Jesse Owens snubbing Hitler at the Olympics, Jackie Robinson's arrival on the major-league scene, Muhammad Ali's draft resistance in the '60s.

Some happen to have cultural resonance: Joe Louis' battles with Max Schmeling, mod Joe Namath and the Jets upsetting the crew-cut Colts, Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's home run record in the South, Seabiscuit rising from rags to riches in the Great Depression.

And some soften the edges of division or serve to distract us from painful realities: Olga Korbut putting a girlish face on the Soviet Union, the United States' Miracle on Ice following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run race at the time of Clinton-Lewinsky - and Secretariat's increasingly one-sided Triple Crown victories when it was hard to count on anything.

Add Smarty Jones to that list?

Sports - let alone the world beyond the turnstiles - seem to have turned into one vast gray area at best, in which it seems any great accomplishment is liable to be discredited, every hero develops a wart eventually.

In that sense, a horse is the ideal hero. Smarty Jones is unlikely ever to shoot the limo driver, curse on live television for all the kids to hear or knowingly ingest illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Those of us who are lucky enough to cover horse racing as well as the mainstream pro sports must contend with the fact that four-legged athletes don't talk. On the other hand, once you've tried to interview Kevin Brown or a similarly prickly personality, you kind of enjoy writing about both ends of the horse.

And every sports-franchise owner who ever dabbled in a racing stable has noted joyously that no matter how many purses a horse wins, he never demands to renegotiate.

What's bad to say about Smarty Jones? He's unbeaten in eight starts, drew away in the Kentucky Derby, a record 11 1/2 lengths best in the Preakness, heavily favored in the Belmont.

Smarty Jones has lifted 39-year-old jockey Stewart Elliott out of a scuffling career, trainer John Servis out of obscurity, his owners out of tragedy. His story tops that of any of the five storybook horses in the past seven years who came to the Belmont with a chance at a Triple Crown sweep.

He won't solve a single real-world problem Saturday, not even if he wins the Belmont by 31 lengths as Secretariat did.

But, like Secretariat, he can give us something to talk about that's more pleasant than Iraq, the price of gas and Kobe Bryant - and that's the definition of a national good thing.

Finally, something America can agree upon.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Secretariat completed his Triple Crown at Belmont in 1973 amid turbulent times for the U.S.

Associated Press

(2) The story of Smarty Jones, shown at Philadelphia Park on Tuesday, tops that of any of the five horses in recent years who went to the Belmont with a chance at the Triple Crown.

Chris Gardner/Associated Press